Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use defer in a sentence

14 example sentences · verb

Defer means to delay or postpone. Example: “We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.”

Examples of defer by meaning

verbTo delay or postpone.

  • We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.

More sentences with defer

  • With her successes, she has truly conquered the committee, all of whose members now defer to her on most issues.From the entry conquer
  • Rather, they are aspirational technological dreamware that defer immediate and sustained action on emissions.2016 July 12, Trish Morgan, “The Techno-finance Fix: A Critical Analysis of International and Regional Environmental Policy Documents and…. From the entry dreamware
  • I respectfully state that if we defer till tomorrow it will create unnecessary misgrieving.1973, Pakistan. National Assembly, Parliamentary Debates. Official Report, page 2067. From the entry misgrieve
  • The soft-minded manager often defers direct action in the hope that the situation will remedy itself.1963, Joe D. Batten, Tough-minded management, →ISBN, page 37. From the entry soft-minded
  • Deferring me to the article, I live that there were indeed mushrooms volvaires which well-sure did not fail to be edible.2002 May 29, Jeff, “Demandez ! demandez ! (2ème édition)”, in aus.sport.rugby-league (Usenet), retrieved 16 May 2022. From the entry impudic
  • A recusatory appointment doth grant a term to propound all exceptions and to eschew or defer the judgment.2000, Gerald Lewis Bray, Tudor Church Reform, →ISBN. From the entry definatory
  • The “Klaliffs” he must defer to within his cybercrew cannot control him offline, for they do not even know his real name.2008, Tyrone Adams, Stephen A. Smith, Electronic tribes: the virtual worlds of geeks, gamers, shamans, and scammers, page 246. From the entry cybercrew
  • This is the stuff to which we are supposed to defer over the sworn statements of those who personally witnessed the actions of the Israelis.2004 September 27, little_people, “The Truth About France”, in soc.culture.jewish (Usenet). From the entry purportion
  • One may therefore be justified in assuming that in deferring the Feast of Tabernacles by one month he reverted to an established northern calendar ²).1986, Shemaryahu Talmon, “The Cult and Calendar Reform of Jeroboam I”, in King, Cult, and Calendar in Ancient Israel: Collected Studies…. From the entry Etanim
  • From that month on, couples where at least one partner is a full-time student or NS Man can opt to defer their income assessment for an HDB loan.2025 March 28, Ryan J, “HDB Just Made It Easier For Young Couples To Buy Flats: But Not Everyone Is Happy”, in STACKED. From the entry HDB
  • Given that (English) politicians are noted for foot-dragging on electrification schemes, will they use these new locomotives simply as an excuse to defer more electrification schemes?2021 March 24, “Open Access: Waiting for the wires”, in Rail, number 927, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 33. From the entry foot-dragging
  • Outsiders serving as insultants are generally best because they feel no need to defer to the preferences of the CEO in order to enhance their promotion prospects.2014, BusinessNews Publishing, Summary: The Breakthrough Company. From the entry insultant
  • With little time to master complex policy matters before terming out, legislators have distanced themselves from more challenging policy issues, deferring them to the initiative process.2006, California Environmental Law Reporter, Volume 2006. From the entry term out

Meaning of defer

  1. verb To delay or postpone.
  2. verb To postpone induction into military service.
  3. verb After winning the opening coin toss, to postpone until the start of the second half a team's choice of whether to kick off or receive (and to allow the opposing team to make this choice at the start of the first half).

Full definition of defer

Questions about defer in a sentence

How do you use defer in a sentence?
Defer is used as a verb. For example: “We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.”
What is a short sentence with defer?
“We're going to defer the decision until we have all the facts.”
What does defer mean?
Defer means to delay or postpone.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: defer (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use defer in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/defer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.